South-African director and puppet artist Janni Younge and her unique visual language transform George Frideric Handel’s dramatic serenata, written in 1708, into a highly topical exploration of the fragile and precarious relationship between humankind and the natural world. With Roberta Mameli, Sophie Rennert, Luigi De Donato, and Berlin’s Akademie für Alte Musik, leading Baroque specialists take on the musical part of this unique music theater production developed especially for the Pierre Boulez Saal.
Galatea, a daughter of the sea god Nereus, is in love with Aci, son of Faunus, the god of forests and fields. Their love is threatened by the giant Cyclops Polifemo, who is passionately obsessed with Galatea. When Galatea mocks and rejects him, he warns that he will impose his will by force. Aci bravely defends Galatea, but as Polifemo’s anger grows, the two realize that their being together will cause each other unbearable anguish. Galatea flees back into the sea, but finding no way to avert the impending catastrophe there either, she returns to Aci. Enraged by the sight of the loving couple united in their resistance against the inevitable suffering they face, Polifemo strikes Aci dead with a boulder. Galatea calls on her father to transform Aci into a river that may run into the sea. Forced to witness the reunion of Aci and Galatea in the ocean, Polifemo realizes the magnitude of his loss and the depth of his own loneliness.
MYTHICAL ORIGINS
The origins of Handel’s characters date back far beyond the Baroque era to the very beginning of storytelling itself. Get to know them and learn more about how their mythological background has shaped Janni Younge's production.
Aci lives as a shepherd at the foot of Mount Etna and is Galatea’s lover. He himself is the son of Faunus, god of forests and shepherds, and the Sicilian river nymph Symaithis (for whom the river Simeto in present-day Sicily is named), but bears very human features. After his murder by Polifemo and his subsequent transformation into a river, described in Ovid’s Metamorphosis (c. 1–8 AD), Aci was identified with the fiume di Jaci, which had its source on Mount Etna and reached the sea near Catania. Due to numerous volcanic eruptions, its exact course can no longer be reconstructed. Today, the names of many villages in the area such as Acireale, Aci Castello, or Aci Sant’Antonio refer to the mythological figure.
Galatea is considered the most beautiful of the Nereids, the 50 daughters of the sea god Nereus. Her name may either stand for “goddess of the calm sea” (galênê = calm + theia = goddess) or “the milk-white” (galaktos), which alludes to the white foam of the waves as well as the milk of sheep and other animals, as whose guardian she was worshipped around Mount Etna. While Galatea rejects the Cyclops Polifemo in Ovid’s version of the story, they become a couple in other traditions and have a son together, Galates.
Polifemo is the son of the sea god and “earth-shaker” Poseidon and the sea nymph Thoosa. The giant Cyclops (“one-eyed”) first appears as a man-eating cave-dweller in Homer’s Odyssey, where Odysseus and his men escape from his captivity thanks to a ruse. In his Metamorphoses, Ovid tells of Polifemo’s futile courtship of Galatea. In an earlier tradition, the Cyclopes also appear as assistant smiths of the fire god Hephaistos, who live in fire-breathing mountains like Mount Etna and forge armor and weapons for the great heroes.
Aci, Galatea, and Polifemo are embodied in three larger-than-life and timeless figures, serving as emanations of humanity's profound connection with our world. Janni Younge, Director
Handel’s serenata, inspired by Ovid’s Metamorphoses, is more than a pastoral love story. Taking the struggle between mythical powers, nature, and human passion as a starting point, Janni Younge—whose poetic visual language has won her worldwide acclaim—and her South-African company explore universal and highly topical issues related to the fragile relationship between humans and the natural world.
Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin
Georg Kallweit Concertmaster
Roberta Mameli Aci
Sophie Rennert Galatea
Luigi De Donato Polifemo
Janni Younge Director
Janni Younge with Luke Younge and Sean Mac Pherson Design
Elvis Sibeko Choreography
Lize-Marie Wait Lighting Design and Stage Management
Illka Louw Costume Design
Mongiwekhaya, Lubabalo Pupu, Vuyolwethu Nompetsheni,
Roshina Ratnam, Sven-Eric Müller, Nathi Mngomezulu,
Sophie Joans, Keishia Solomon Visual Performance
Supported by the Kulturverwaltung des Landes Berlin
